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I've been lurking around RetroMags for several months now, waiting to pitch in. I had even organized and cataloged my game mag collection late last year, anticipating contributing to the preservation effort.

So when Phillyman's e-mail announced the new editor, I was really excited to dive in. And then when I read about the contest, I was even more excited to dive in.

Areala, I don't think there's much chance of that happening. After viewing some of your indexes, I'm having to go back and tweak many of mine! The bar has been set high.

If it doesn't break the contest rules, I'll be sure to share my winning mag. Fingers crossed for a Super NES Buyer's Guide or Team Sega Newsletter!

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I looked at your indexed mags and I must say that's a very high standard you've set there... admittedly not one I'll follow, as I believe in minimalistic and the functional. That said, I hope to win at least one magazine. I don't have a huge catalogue of magazines, but what I do have I'll make the most of.

Count me as competition for Week 3 and beyond!

--Hunter of Bugs.

(I chose that username because it's an alternate spelling of Bughunter, which I use in more places than I can count.)

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If it doesn't break the contest rules, I'll be sure to share my winning mag. Fingers crossed for a Super NES Buyer's Guide or Team Sega Newsletter!

Nope, you guys can report what you won. Then people will know which magazines are still left to be won. I seriously have no clue what I sent out to either of you so far. I shuffled all the magazines and then bagged them up in poly bags, then put them into the bubble mailers and gave them each a number on the back.

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Nope, you guys can report what you won. Then people will know which magazines are still left to be won. I seriously have no clue what I sent out to either of you so far. I shuffled all the magazines and then bagged them up in poly bags, then put them into the bubble mailers and gave them each a number on the back.

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I looked at your indexed mags and I must say that's a very high standard you've set there... admittedly not one I'll follow, as I believe in minimalistic and the functional. That said, I hope to win at least one magazine. I don't have a huge catalogue of magazines, but what I do have I'll make the most of.

Oh, I don't think there's any one, right way of indexing this archive, to be honest. So I definitely wouldn't consider any of my indexing to be a high standard. There are certain guidelines & requirements for the archive & contest, of course, and I try to stick to a consistent format, but I've found it really varies from magazine to magazine. Definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach. I imagine this is why Phillyman designed the editor to be so "free form" to begin with.

For example, I tried applying what I do with VG&CE issues to an issue of Mega Play, but it just didn't work. It was much more effective to go minimal in that case. And this is probably true with most system-specific or brand-specific magazines. VG&CE covers a wide swath of electronic gaming, so I spend more time there, trying to elaborate a bit. They also do a good job with the contents page, which helps. (Other magazines, not so much - I'm looking at you, EGM!)

I've also taken Areala's comment to heart and try to err on the side of info. So when I'm putting an index together, I try to be sure to clarify anything important and leave notes when necessary, both for any site visitor reading the index, or for any search engine that may parse the index based on search criteria.

I wish I had Areala's skill for making the index not only informative but also entertaining, but I'm not very good at that kind of thing, I'm afraid.

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Nope, you guys can report what you won. Then people will know which magazines are still left to be won. I seriously have no clue what I sent out to either of you so far. I shuffled all the magazines and then bagged them up in poly bags, then put them into the bubble mailers and gave them each a number on the back.

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I wish I had Areala's skill for making the index not only informative but also entertaining, but I'm not very good at that kind of thing, I'm afraid.

I think, once we really get this index built and have a number of different people contributing, we'll start to get to a point where we can look at a particular page and go, "Oh yeah, that was So-and-So who did that issue." Everybody has his or her calling card, mine just happens to be dropping in misc. thoughts while I'm doing it. I figure an index of information is nice, but if you can get some entertainment out of the whole thing too, that's a bonus.